A method for the application of data onto chip and/or magnetic stripe cards is known from DE 30 49 607 C1. With this method, the cards which are removed from a card supply magazine, which contains the cards to be processed, successively travel through a chip and/or magnetic stripe processing station first where changeable data is recorded on the chip and/or the magnetic stripe and then through a card body processing station where the unchangeable data is applied to the card body, for example, by printing, laser inscription or raised embossing. After the recording of the data onto the chip and/or the magnetic stripe a check is carried out as to whether recording has been effected properly. This can be done in the chip and/or the magnetic stripe processing station or in a separate inspection station. Cards on which data recording was not carried out properly will not be supplied to the card body processing station but will be rejected. Immediately after the detection of the error a still unprocessed card is provided and the data which was recorded in an incorrect/incomplete manner is recorded on the new card, and thus a properly processed card is produced. This card is then placed into a storage magazine for properly processed cards. In this manner, a contiguous serial storage of the properly processed cards is achieved. The sequence of the cards placed into the storage magazine for "accept cards" corresponds to the sequence of the data sets recorded in the system in accordance with the processing list.
It is mandatory to maintain the correct sequence of the cards if this is a condition for subsequent automated processing steps (e.g. shipping facilities for the cards).
Though the method according to DE 30 49 607 C1 which is known from the state of the art ensures contiguous serial storage of the properly processed cards, it has, nevertheless, limitations and drawbacks which will be explained in the following.
In a system with two successively arranged processing stations (1.sup.st /2.sup.nd station), the supply of an unprocessed virgin card for the immediate reproduction of a card with the data record of a "reject card" is based on the condition that always only one card is located in the processing stations. Otherwise, the "supply route" for the card to be reproduced will be blocked if another data record is already applied to the next card in the first processing station at a time at which the verification of the processing operation in the previous processing station is not yet completed. The fact that recording of the next data record for the next card to be processed may not commence as long as a card is still being processed and checked, however, reduces the card throughput disadvantageously.
If it is permitted that processing of the next card already commences when a eard is still being processed, then both cards--the incorrect card and the card in the direction of the processing sequence whose processing has already started--must be rejected in the case of a card which was not processed properly in order to clear the "supply route" for the virgin card. This means, however, that additional card rejects are tolerated in order to maintain the storage sequence of the properly processed cards. This, however, is not acceptable.
In order to avoid undesired card rejects, the card whose processing has already commenced and which is blocking the supply route could be brought into a separate parking device and thus be removed from the actual processing sequence until the card to be reproduced has passed the processing sequence properly. This, however, necessitates disadvantageous additional design efforts for the card personalization system.
In order to increase the card throughput, card personalization systems are increasingly being employed wherein multiple processing stations are incorporated so that a parallelization of processing steps is effected. The above described problem of maintaining a defined storage sequence in the case of the occurrence of processing errors with these systems is considerably more complex compared to the system known from DE 30 49 607 C1 where only one or two processing stations are provided which are arranged downstream of one another in the processing direction.